Catchin’ Up in the Feed Reader | May 29

May 29, 2009 by Kathy Drewien · View Comments
Filed under: Bloggers Say - Updates from My Reading List

I’m always reading ‘round the web to stay on top of small business trends, social media, and emerging technologies. By creating News to Use it really helps me to stay on top of the stuff capturing my attention.

Don’t miss the news. Subscribe to this blog in your feed reader, or use the email subscription box in the right column.

Social Media Profiles as Tools for Links and Traffic
Even if you’re not ready to jump in with both feet and create fully a engaged presence on popular social media sites, you should still take the time to create and optimize profiles on a number of sites as a way to control more web real estate and, in some cases, create high value links back to your primary web pages.

How to Cure “Death by PowerPoint”
Asking people to travel to see a presentation can be dangerous, and the last thing anyone wants to overhear is, “I flew all the way out here for this?”

Brain Rules for Presenters

10 Ways to Boost Your Blogging
As a communication and community-building tool, blogging is up there with Twitter as a key social media platform. A place to both offer and share opinions as well as a view at the person behind an online persona, a blog is more than just a personal or business journal – it’s your voice.

Create a Graph
Graphs and charts are great because they communicate information visually. If you are Excel challenged, this site is for you!

Use Time Wisely to Change Your Life
If you really think about it, time is the one thing we have that is always free, always there. Time never stops and always keeps going. Whether you want it to go slower, or faster, need more… it remains the same.

Tags: blog, catchin' up, Communication, feed reader, social media, Social network

Catching Up On News ‘Round the Web Jan 27

January 27, 2009 by Kathy Drewien · View Comments
Filed under: Bloggers Say - Updates from My Reading List

I’m always reading ‘round the web to stay on top of small business online marketing success and emerging technologies.

I’ve created a new category called Catching Up to organize articles of interest to me, and I hope to you.

Don’t miss Catching Up. Subscribe to this blog in your feed reader, or use the email subscription box in the right column.

Reflections Over Coffee Our opportunity is to grow, to be shaped. But our lives are shaped by our relationships. Who we hang out with, who we drink coffee with, what we talk about while we are drinking coffee will shape us.

I understand that more people would be interested in church if we spent more time over coffee. It is valuable to sit side by side and sing and listen. (It really is.) But somehow, I think I need to spend more time sitting face to face talking and listening.

Acorns and Oak Trees True success comes from the building of relationships. Of loyalties being forged. Of give and take and the combining of good ideas and openness to encourage greatness.

Aim high – there’s nothing wrong with that. But just take a minute to think what’s going to get you higher – two giants 100 feet tall who control you, or hundreds of normal sized people who respect you.

Lose Control of Your Marketing! New Free eBook For decades, companies have offered Web content as lead bait. But the goal should be to get the word out about your organization, not to misuse the Internet for the sake of an outdated technique.

For your ideas to spread and rise to the status of a World Wide Rave, you must give up control. Make your information on the Web totally free for people to access, with absolutely no virtual strings attached.

What are you catching up on? Use the comments to share highlights from your reading.

Tags: Business, E-book, Internet Marketing, marketing, Marketing and Advertising, small business

Catching Up on News ‘Round the Web

January 19, 2009 by Kathy Drewien · View Comments
Filed under: Bloggers Say - Updates from My Reading List

I’m always reading ‘round the web to stay on top of small business online marketing success and emerging technologies.

I’ve created a new category called Catching Up to organize articles of interest to me, and I hope to you.

Don’t miss Catching Up. Subscribe to this blog in your feed reader, or use the email subscription box in the right column. Or you can subscribe to Catching Up only and not receive my other posts.

It Ain’t About the Technology That’s my standard response when asked about Social Media. That’s not to say technology is unimportant, but that technology never really changes how people behave, think, and feel. Human nature drives that; technology only changes the constraints previously placed on human preferences.

Image by luc legay via Flickr

Community and Social Network Research
Strategy: Online Communities: Build Or Join? (Hint: the answer is ‘when’)

Resources: How to Staff for Social Computing (Like any business program, key people are needed, and here’s there two roles you’ll need to succeed)

Best Practices: Online Community Best Practices (I interviewed 19 brands that have done it right, and to find out how, remember: only 20% is technology)

In my opinion, Twitter is not about making money, it is about building relationships.These relationships might be business or personal in nature. Regardless of the type of relationship, being overly “sales-ish” or pretending to be something that you are not seems to turn people off and will discourage Tweeters from following you.

What works? Be yourself. Be honest. Give good advice and thank people who are giving you advice when you need it.

What are you reading this week?